An umbrella term for certain music in Japan, with the genres it covers largely analogous to pop music in the US. Nicknamed "J Pop", it is most known to fans outside Japan for
Idol Singers and that many such songs are often featured in
Anime openings and endings due to alliances between certain animation studios and record companies (i.e. lots of Sony artists have tie-ins with shounen anime produced by Sony). That is to say nothing of the copious amounts of
Gratuitous English that are a hallmark of the genre. Also note that many voice actors have singing careers too but most focus on the niche anison market and a rare few actually attempt to break into the mainstream market.
Japanese popular music until J-Pop truly "became" a genre was called kayokyoku ("Lyric Singing Music"). Kayokyoku usually didn't include
Gratuitous English like many J-Pop bands. Kayokyoku continued to last until the 1980s. Artists of kayokyoku were heavily influenced by western jazz and rock n' roll.
A notable movement in kayokyoku in the late 1960s into the early 1970s is the "Group Sounds" movement. Influenced heavily by groups such as
The Beatles,
The Byrds, and other such groups, group sounds bands were characterized by their reliance on
Psychedelic Rock and
Baroque Pop influenced instrumentation and featured Bishonen lead singers usually, such as Kenji "Julie" Sawada from
The Tigers.
J-pop technically isn't a genre and only tells one where the artist is from. Some music fans get irritated by its treatment as a defined genre as it is really just regular pop, but happens to be Japanese. Same goes for J-rock, J-urban, J-metal and any other genre that has the letter j thrown in front of it to describe Japanese artists. Of course, the same can technically also be said of
anime,
manga,
toku and the like. It's not as if we have a different word for Japanese video games.
Notable J Pop artists:
- Abingdon Boys School (Also see TM Revolution)
- aiko
- Jin Akanishi
- AKB 48
- Akeboshi
- Akina Nakamori - A large star in the '80s, so much so that she was often promoted in the media as Seiko Matsuda's "rival" though in actuality Nakamori had great respect and admiration for Matsuda often humming along to her songs on shows they ended up on together.
- Namie Amuro
- Anna Tsuchiya
- angela
- Aqua Timez
- Arashi
- Asian Kung-Fu Generation
- AAA (Attack All Around): A Co-Ed group composed of 7 members (previously 8)
- ayaka
- AZU
- Be For U
- BENI
- BoA (It should be noted that she is ethnically Korean.)
- B'z - Currently the most successful Japanese musician since Oricon start counting with 80 million copies sold in Japan. They were also the first Asian band inducted in the Hollywood's Rock Walk. Tak Matsumoto, the band's guitarist and leader has also won a Grammy award for a collaboration album with Larry Carlton.
- capsule
- Crystal Kay
- DREAMS COME TRUE
- EXILE
- Faylan
- FLOW
- Gackt
- GLAY
- GReeeeN
- Ayumi Hamasaki
- Megumi Hayashibara
- Hello! Project
- Hey Say Jump
- High And Mighty Color
- Kanon Wakeshima (Crosses over with Visual Kei)
- Ken Hirai
- Kyary Pamyu Pamyu
- hitomi
- I've Sound
- Johnny's Jimusho has many popular groups featuring artists such as Yamapi (of NEWS), Kamenashi Kazuya (of KAT-TUN), Matsumoto Jun Arashi, Ikuta Toma and Japan's Most Beloved Boyband, SMAP, among many many others.
- They also branch out into acting and talk shows - being, in many cases, better at acting than at singing.
- Kanjani8
- Kanako Itou
- KAT-TUN
- Tomoko Kawase, front woman of The Brilliant Green. She's also known as Tommy february6 and later Tommy heavenly6.
- Kis-My-Ft2
- Kobukuro
- Koda Kumi, made famous from Final Fantasy X 2. Regarded as the Japanese Britney Spears due to the fact that she usually wears almost nothing but a smile on stage.
- Actually it was the Cutey Honey that brought her up from one hit-wonder status and "Butterfly" that sealed it.
- L'Arc~en~Ciel
- m-flo
- M.O.V.E.
- May'n
- Melocure
- Mi Chi
- Miliyah Kato
- Momoe Yamaguchi - One of the biggest stars of the 1970s. Notable for her early career which included VERY suggestive lyrics despite her age (early and mid teens) until popularity allowed her to get another pair of writers and launch her to great success... until getting tired of the idol lifestyle, marrying her frequent co-star and retiring in 1980 at 21 and at the height of her fame.
- Nana Mizuki is literally the ONLY seiyuu that is actually on a household name basis for her singing career, sad to say. Sales figures and being invited to perform in the Kouhaku Uta Gassen
back it up.
- Momoiro Clover Z
- Mika Nakashima
- miwa
- NEWS
- nobodyknows+
- Perfume
- Ogre You Asshole
- OLIVIA, real name: Olivia Lufkin
- Orange Range
- Pizzicato Five
- Porno Graffitti
- Puffy AmiYumi
- Princess Princess: Pop-rock band that enjoyed immense success at the turn of the decade in the 1980s/1990s. In 1989 they became the first all-female group to play at the Nippon Budokan and their most popular single, Diamonds, became Japan's first million-selling single.
- Rie Fu
- Sambomaster
- Kenji Sawada
- Scandal
- See-Saw
- Seiko Matsuda - A huge star in the '80s who holds (or held) many records for album and single sales earning her the moniker "Eternal Idol". Released an American album in 1990 which included a hit duet with Donnie Wahlberg.
- Shota Shimizu
- SKE 48
- SMAP
- SPEED
- Spontania
- Sugawara Sayuri
- T.M.Revolution (Also a Visual Kei artist, though he constantly cycles between J-pop, visual and straight-up rock. See Abingdon Boys School, his J-rock side project)
- The Tigers (One of the most well known of the "Group Sounds" movement)
- Tohoshinki / Dong Bang Shin Ki A Boy Band which originated in Korea before gaining popularity in Japan.
- Tokyo Girls Style
- TOKIO (no, not Tokio Hotel...)
- Nami Tamaki
- Utada Hikaru, made famous in America from the Kingdom Hearts series.
- UVERWorld
- V6
- YUI
- Yukiko Okada, a famous idol singer and her music choice being a perfect example. Sadly, it was cut short after her unexpected suicide which triggered copycats in its wake.
- Yumi Matsutoya - One of the most successful artists in J-Pop history with a career spanning 40+ years. The second highest selling female artist of all time behind only Ayumi Hamasaki, the first artist to have a record certified 2x million by the RIAJ (1990's The Gates of Heaven) and holds a likely to be unbroken record of having one number one album for 18 consecutive years from 1981-1999.
- Yuna Ito
